LOS ANGELES – Few actors make the leap from mere performer to movie star. Fewer still make a second leap, from movie star to mogul, becoming the sort of actor who doesn’t just get movies made by attaching his name to them, but instigates projects on his own.

Johnny Depp is one of those rarities. The actor who started out as a teenage heartthrob on the television series “21 Jump Street” seems hardly able to believe the transformation himself. When a reporter refers to him as a producer of his latest film, “Dark Shadows,” he demurs.